People have been waking up virtually the same way for over 125 years. A desired time to wake up is set and then a loud, irritating often-repetitive, sound is used to awaken the person. Seth Thomas Clock Company was granted a patent in 1876 for a small bedside alarm clock. Technology has made this system a bit easier but the stimulus to wake up remains highly unchanged since the patent was first granted. In 1876, the alarm clock was a fabulous way to indicate when to rise from sleep since sound was easy to produce and it worked. However, a great amount of work on the brain and how sensory information is processed has been conducted since 1876.
Although sound was an excellent way to wake someone up in 1876, studies of the brain and sensory system has shown sound has absolutely nothing to do with the regulation of sleep and wake cycles, and therefore the use of sound to awaken somebody from sleep is an antiquated method for the 21st century.
The brain has been designed to quickly receive and process information relayed by sound due to its importance in the survival of the species. The auditory cortex in the human brain is the special area used to process sound. The auditory cortex allows communication between and among humans. Language is processed there and speech is also initiated there. The auditory cortex has nothing to do with sleep wake cycles.
Studies of the wake/sleep cycle have demonstrated an interesting and wonderful system for its regulation—light. The light is sensed by the eyes and travels on the second cranial nerve (optic nerve) to a nucleus in the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (FIG. 1). When light intensity is low, the suprachiasmatic nucleus signals the pineal gland to produce a hormone called melatonin, which causes the feeling of drowsiness. There is also a set of proteins, RNA, other cell chemicals made by cells in the suprachiasmatic nucleus that either turn on or off production of products with regard to light stimulus. When light intensities are high, the production of melatonin is inhibited.
The suprachiasmatic nucleus system is so sophisticated that even people who are blind still respond to changes in light intensity through melatonin level fluctuations. This supports a separate tract for the sensory input and response to light stimulus for regulating the sleep/wake cycle.
Human physiology and behavior is dominated by near-24-hour rhythms that have a major impact on our health and well-being. For example, alertness and performance patterns, core body temperature rhythms and the production of hormones, such as, melatonin and cortisol are all regulated by an endogenous near-24-hour oscillator in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) of the anterior hypothalamus. Light information is captured by specialized retinal photoreceptors and sent directly to the SCN along a dedicated neural pathway, the retinohypothalamic tract (RHT). The intensity, number, duration, pattern and timing of exposure to light, as well as, the wavelength of light have been shown to regulate to circadian resetting. The human brain is extremely sensitive to dim light. A light intensity equivalent to indoor room light is able to significantly effect changes in hormone release. The wavelength of the light is important in humans with an increased sensitivity to short wavelength light and spectral sensitivity which is different from conventional scotopic and photopic vision.
It is inevitable, even though light is the correct stimulus to awaken a person, for a desensitization to occur over time. Adaption to a stimulus eventually occurs so it must be changed in order to be effective. If a person sets a device at a frequency, color and/or intensity, it may wake them up very well for a while, but in a few months or years, they may sleep right through the light stimulus. Alarms clocks can be loud and annoying but people sleep right through them because their brain has adapted to the stimulus.
Additionally, a light stimulus does what sound cannot, decrease melatonin and change the gene expression of the cells in the SCN. Melatonin and the cell expression cause lethargy, decreased alertness, cognitive decline and sleepiness. People hate early morning because they feel sleepy and tired. They feel this way because they woke up with a system that does not depress the levels of melatonin or change the cell signaling in the SCN.
The pineal gland synthesizes and secretes melatonin, a hormone that communicates information about environmental lighting to various parts of the body. Melatonin has the ability to entrain biological rhythms and has important effects on reproductive function of many animals.
The pineal gland is a small organ shaped like a pine cone. The pineal gland is composed of “pinealocytes” and glial cells. It is located on the midline, attached to the posterior end of the roof of the third ventricle in the brain (FIG. 2).
The precursor to melatonin is serotonin, a neurotransmitter that itself is derived from the amino acid tryptophan. Synthesis and secretion of melatonin is dramatically affected by light exposure to the eyes. The fundamental pattern observed is that serum concentrations of melatonin are low during the daylight hours, and increase to a peak during the dark. The circadian rhythm in melatonin secretion in humans is that blood levels of melatonin are essentially undetectable during daytime, but rise sharply during the dark. Other species have very similar patterns. The duration of melatonin secretion each day is directly proportional to the length of the night.
Melatonin has important effects in integrating photoperiod and affecting circadian rhythms. Consequently, it has been reported to have significant effects on reproduction, sleep-wake cycles and other phenomena showing circadian rhythm.
Seasonal changes in day length have profound effects on reproduction in many species, and melatonin is a key player in controlling such events. In temperate climates, animals like hamsters, horses and sheep have distinct breeding season. During the non-breeding season, the gonads become inactive (e.g., males fail to produce sperm in any number), but as the breeding season approaches, the gonads must be rejuvenated. Photoperiod—the length of day vs. night—is the most important cue allowing animals to determine which season it is. The pineal gland is able to measure day length and adjust secretion of melatonin accordingly.
The effect of melatonin on reproductive systems can be summarized by saying that it is anti-gonadotropic. In other words, melatonin inhibits the secretion of the gonadotropic hormones luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone from the anterior pituitary. Much of this inhibitory effect seems due to inhibition of gonadotropin-releasing hormone from the hypothalamus, which is necessary for secretion of the anterior pituitary hormones. One practical application of melatonin's role in controlling seasonal reproduction is found in its use to artificially manipulate cycles in seasonal breeders.
The disclosed light emitting device is different from other devices that appear similar, although only superficially. There are products that use a face covering to block out light and may play music or other sounds to sooth the person into sleep or induce a perceived good sleep experience. Although these devices may appear similar, they are meant to function in the opposite of the disclosed light emitting device in that they are trying to make a person sleep better, while the disclosed device is meant to awaken a person from sleep.
There are some devices that have a face covering and emit light from the face covering to modify the circadian rhythm in a person. These devices, although emitting light, are not worn when sleeping or used to awaken a person like an alarm clock but instead are meant to combat jet lag or fatigue, or to increase beta-endorphins in the bloodstream of the subject.
There are devices that appear “on the surface” to be similar to the disclosed devices in the application; however, they fail to have the combination of wave length, duration, initiation of onset, termination of duration, pulse rate, and intensity that is used to awaken a sleeping animal, including humans.
There are devices that use pulsing light to put people to sleep [Kameyama US20070118026; Searfoss et al. US 20050248962], alleviate “jet lag”, re-set a person's circadian rhythm (biorhythm) [Czeisler U.S. Pat. No. 5,304,212], or treat a medical condition [Jaillet U.S. Pat. No. 6,443,977; Molina US20050070977; Brainard US20010056293]. However, there has never been a device that uses the claimed combination of wave length, duration, initiation of onset, termination of duration, pulse rate, and intensity to awaken a sleeping animal, including humans. It is impossible to extrapolate from devices and methods used to put a person to sleep or change their circadian rhythm to devices and methods used to awaken a person. It is a simple fact that something that puts a person to sleep does not at the same time awaken a person.
The disclosure of a device or method that functions to induce a specific phenomenon in a person does not anticipate or make obvious a device or method that induces the opposite phenomenon in a person. That is, a device or method that induces sleep in a person does not anticipate or make obvious a device or method that induces awakening in a person.
Kameyama US20070118026 discloses a device to put an awakened person back to sleep or to put an awake person to sleep by “a lighting device to irradiate a light in a waveband with relatively small melatonin-production suppression effect” (Abstract).
Searfoss et al. US 20050248962 discloses a person exposed to “cycling the light at a frequency of one cycle per second to one cycle per minute” will go to sleep. Searfoss discloses the use a full spectrum light with no pulses for a “wake-up mode”
Czeisler U.S. Pat. No. 5,304,212 discloses a method to re-set a person's circadian rhythm after travel to a distant time zone where the natural photoperiod is different from the person's previous circadian rhythm. The disclosed method involves exposing a conscious person to a pulse of light to delay the onset of a person's natural sleep phase or induce sleep in a person. Czeisler discloses the use a single light pulse at a high intensity to re-set a person's circadian rhythm. He discovered that bright light is necessary to rapidly achieve phase modification. When bright light, on the order of 7,000-12,000 lux (optimally averaging about 9,500 lux or greater in the preferred embodiment) is applied daily, phase shifts on the order of 9-11 hours in a 2-3 day period are commonly observed. Czeisler '212 method uses a single pulse of light with a high intensity and adapted to delay the onset of a person's sleep phase; which is the opposite of the function of the disclosed device in the application.
Jaillet U.S. Pat. No. 6,443,977 discloses a pulse rate of 25 Hertz (25 pulses/second) or a pulse rate of 2,400 pulses/minute and the apparatus is applied to a conscious person. The apparatus and method in Jaillet '977 is used for reconfiguring or redirecting nervous impulses to treat the symptoms of dyslexia, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD).
Molina US20050070977 discloses a device to alleviate assorted ailments (diabetic skin ulcers, severe oral sores cause by chemotherapy and radiation, premenstrual syndrome, headaches, seasonal affect disorder, labor, jet lag, sleep disorders and eating disorder). The device is used on a conscious person with a pulse rate up to 70,000 pulses/minute.
Brainard US20010056293 discloses a device adapted to treat “mammals with a wide variety of disorders or deficits, including light responsive disorders, eating disorders, menstrual cycle disorders, non-specific alerting and performance deficits, hormone-sensitive cancers, and cardiovascular disorders”. Additionally, Brainard does not disclose any pulse rate and the device is used on a conscious person.
None of these devices use the combination of wave length, duration, initiation of onset, termination of duration, pulse rate, and intensity to awaken a sleeping animal, including humans.
The disclosed light emitting device takes advantage of the modern discoveries in medicine and brain physiology. The device allows a subject to awaken from sleep at a predetermined time, while achieving a reduction in drowsiness.